The Government of Guyana has received over 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
Catering for the continuing short supply of Sputnik V second doses, it means that a total of 520,303 persons can be fully vacc inated.
Stabroek News has compiled the total number of vaccines received by health authorities by using the numbers provided by the Ministry in their various reports. Using these reported numbers, the country has received 1,087,606 doses of vaccines in total. The health authorities are currently using five vaccines as part of the inoculation programme, those being AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Sputnik V, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer-BioNTech.
All of the two-dose vaccines received except the Sputnik V shots, would be divided equally to provide first and second doses for persons. The Sputnik V first and second doses are different and the supply of the second dose has lagged.
A total of 284,200 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been received through donations and the COVAX facility. The initial donation from the Government of Barbados was followed by a donation from the Government of India and a supply from the COVAX facility. From the donation of 80,000 AZ doses from India, 5,000 were donated to Barbados. This 284,200 also includes the 84,800 doses that were donated to Guyana by the United Kingdom. As a result Guyana has enough AZ shots to fully inoculate 139,600 persons.
Guyana has also received a total of 120,000 doses of the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine. The first tranche of vaccines amounted to 20,000 and constituted a donation from China while the second was a purchase by Guyana of 100,000 doses. As such 60,000 persons can be fully inoculated using this vaccine which is a two-dose shot.
The Russian-made Sputnik V shots which have been referred to as the backbone of Guyana’s inoculation programme, use two different components for the first and second doses. Using the reported arrivals of the vaccines, Guyana has received a total of 407,536 doses of the said vaccine. Of that amount 244,268 are first doses while 163,268 are second doses. This would mean that Guyana would need to receive over 80,000 more second doses to be able to match the first dose numbers.
Through a deal with the African Union platform, Guyana has received 34,000 doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The newest addition to the vaccines here was the Pfizer shots. A total of 246,870 doses have been donated by the US to Guyana to date. The first tranche consisted of 146,250 which was initially earmarked for the 12 to 17 cohort. The second tranche consisted of 100,620 doses as a donation from the United States through the COVAX facility and was originally intended for pregnant and lactating mothers. This vaccine was recently made available for the general population.
With that, a total of 567,303 persons would be able to receive their first dose of a vaccine while some 520,303 persons can be fully inoculated. (Shamar Meusa)
